The main objective of this project is to study the retinoglycolipids in mammalian livers as possible intermediates in glycoprotein biosynthesis. A retinophosphomannose was isolated from rat liver and the structure of the vitamin A part of the molecule has been proposed as a C38 compound similar to kitol. Retinoic acid is known to be extenively decarboxylated to give ris to C19 aldehyde, which in the enol form, would condense to give a dimer possessing two hydroxyl groups. The mass sppctrum of the vitamin A derivative - TMS has been studied compared to kitol and retinol. Further confirmation of the proposed structure will be possible from the study of the perhydro derivatives of these compounds. it is proposed to chemically synthesize the glycolipid containing retinol or its derivatives and a sugar like mannose linked through phospho ester linkage. The chemical synthesis of retinophosphomannose and related compounds could provide unambiguous evidence for the participation of a substance in the biosynthetic process and additionally, would make available relatively large amounts of material for further biological experiments for the study of the physical and chemical properties of phosphoesters of this type, and for the importance of the lipid structure in the biosynthetic process. Vitamin A is essential for keeping the integrity of the cell membrane structure and the formation of similar phosphate ester linkages with glycosyl residues, makes the molecule more suited for cell penetration and transport and this may well be the mechanism for the functioning of the vitamin in glycosyl transfer. The formation glycolipid forms of vitamin A in vitro from GDP-mannose, UDP-N-acetyl glucosamine and other sugar necleotides and in vivo from glucose, fucose, galactose etc. will be studied.